Architecture News

Winka Dubbeldam Named New Director/CEO of SCI-Arc

Winka Dubbeldam. Photo courtesy SCI-Arc

Winka Dubbeldam, an architectural designer with an extensive background working within academia, has been appointed as the next director and CEO of the Los Angeles–based Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). She will formally assume the role on September 1, replacing outgoing SCI-Arc director Hernán Díaz Alonso, who has been with the 53-year-old institution in that role for a decade and, per the school, is widely credited for shaping its graduate curriculum and leading its shift to digital technologies, an area of deep expertise for Dubbeldam.

“SCI-Arc has long been a beacon for radical experimentation, and I am honored to join a community that continuously redefines what architecture can be,” said Dubbeldam in a statement. “I look forward to building on the school’s legacy of innovation and fostering new opportunities for students and faculty to engage with the future of design.”

Dubbeldam joins SCI-Arc after a long-running academic career at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, where she holds a full professorship in architecture. She served as chair of the Weitzman School from 2013–2023 and, before that, initiated and led its Post-Professional Architecture program for a full decade beginning in 2003. At Penn, Dubbeldam also launched the Advanced Research and Innovation Lab (ARI), restructured the curriculum to foster experimental research, initiated three Master of Science in Design (MSD) programs, and established an annual publication published by ORO titled Pressing Matters. Her academic leadership, says SCI-Arc “reflects a deep belief in architecture as a tool for invention, transformation, and discovery.” Outside of Penn, she has also held teaching posts at Columbia and Harvard University and has served as an external examiner at London’s Bartlett School of Architecture since 2018.

Born in the Netherlands, Dubbeldam studied architecture at Rotterdam’s Institute of Higher Professional Architectural Education and, later, Columbia University, where she received her Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design. Early in her career, she worked at the New York office of Peter Eisenman before going on to establish her own practice, Archi-Tectonics, in 1994. The firm, which today has studios in New York, Amsterdam, and Hangzhou, is best known for a diverse number of commissions, spanning private residences to retail environments to hybrid concert-hall-stadiums, that incorporate cutting-edge technologies and materials. Her designs have been shown at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and various other venues.

“I’m excited for this next chapter, and I know the school is in excellent hands with Winka,” said Díaz Alonso. “She’s been a longtime friend of SCI-Arc, and her vision, creativity, and global perspective align deeply with the spirit of this place.”

Although SCI-Arc underwent significant, positive change over Diaz Alonso’s tenure it was also one marked by controversy, specifically regarding allegations of faculty misconduct and forced student labor in 2022; these allegations ultimately lead to the resignations of faculty members Tom Wiscombe and Marrikka Trotter.

KEYWORDS: architecture education

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Matt Hickman is Senior News/Digital Editor at Architectural Record. Previously, he served as Senior Editor at The Architect’s Newspaper and has over a decade of experience as a freelance writer and editor specializing in historic preservation, public space, and the intersection of the natural world and built environment. A native of the Pacific Northwest, Matt holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from The New School.